Tuna and asparagus stir fry

With all the activities in the recently concluded Tuna Festival, one can’t help but be inspired with cooking all the tuna dishes that you can. Here’s another tuna dish using crazy cut slices done the classic stir fry way. All the ingredients you can find here in Gensan.

tuna and asparagus stir fry
Tuna and asparagus stir fry

2 tbsp cooking oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
1/4 tsp chili powder (or according to preference)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp patis (fish sauce)
250 grams crazy cut tuna
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
12 pcs asparagus spears sliced into 2-inch length

Heat 2 tbsp oil and add the garlic and chili powder. Stir 2-3 times then add sugar and patis. Let simmer… smell the aroma of sugar, garlic and patis. Yum! Add the tuna and stir fry until tuna is half done, about 2 minutes. Add the bell pepper and asparagus  and stir fry till tuna and vegetables are cooked through. Note that as you stir fry, apply high heat to the pan so the juices from tuna and asparagus don’t boil the ingredients. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

How simple is this? Where to get the tuna in Gensan? Check out these shops: RDEX, Pacific Seas and Citra Mina. Or you can go to Gensan’s public markets and get whole slew of different tuna parts – tuna cubes, tuna skin (tuna chicharon, anyone?), roe, etc… As for asparagus, with it’s many benefits such as being anti-cancer (no more cancer treatment & prescriptions!), is found in Gensan all year round. Now, you don’t have to have only asparagus and oyster sauce. You can have tuna and asparagus in one dish!

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Octopus and Fettucine Orientale

What I love about the markets here in Gensan is the variety of seafoods one can find everyday. My motto when going to the market is “anything goes…”. I derive inspiration for my cooking for the week from the array of vegetables and  treasure trove (much like loose diamonds) of seafood one can find here. Recently, a friend’s birthday called for a celebration and I promised a pasta dish. I was contemplating on doing a red pasta dish with homemade Italian sausage when I saw these wonderful beauties!

Octopus in pasta, why not? I love seafood pasta so my imagination worked overtime to come with this dish. First though, you have to blanch the octopus. The tentacles would curl and would look this:

The pasta tasted great even if the picture below doesn’t look like it! Anyway, I’m sharing this with Presto Pasta Nights hosted this week by Katie of One Little Corner of the World.


Octopus and Fettucine Orientale

2 octopus (~500 grams)
350 grams fettucine
1/2 cup naturally-fermented soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tsp finely minced ginger
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add 1 tsp salt. When water is boiling, put the octopus on the pot and blanch for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Chop the tentacles and head. Put in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly then add the soy sauce, ginger, sugar and 1 tbsp sesame oil. Marinate for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook fettucine according to package instructions. Reserve 1/2 cup of broth from cooking pasta.

Drain octopus and reserve marinade. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and stir fry the octopus for about 2 minutes. Remove from pan and keep warm on a plate. Heat pan juices then add the reserved marinade and pasta broth. Bring to the boil then gently simmer till slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the pasta, octopus and remaining sesame oil then mix thoroughly to coat the pasta with the sauce. When pasta is heated through, transfer to plate and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving.

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